a Letter to kings of Leon

Dear Kings of Leon,

How are you? I hope you are well. I felt I needed to write to you, and discuss a few things on my mind. I don’t want to sound horrible, but I needed to get it off my chest.A friend of mine went to the Reading Festival this year, and he told me that you…well, that you weren’t very good. Maybe this was just his opinion, he does like strange things at times (he doesn’t grate his cheese when having a cheese and cucumber sandwich for Christs sake. He slices it!). But this piece of news made me worry.I’ve been a fan of you guys for some time. I was at my friends house party when I first heard you. Milk came on the stereo, and I was a fan instantly (probably helped by my rather attractive friend Mel slowly drunkenly dancing to it). Bought your album the next day, and got any others as soon as I could. I’ve listened to your songs on my various travels, and had smiles many times because of it (the whole Youth and Young Manhood album got me through some tough nights in South Africa, and I had a really great sexual fantasy to Milk some time later in Singapore)But then this last summer came around. The ‘Sex on Fire’ summer. I first listened to the album, and I liked it. Sex on Fire and Use Somebody were good songs, and there were a good few more on the album that I really liked. I thought that given a few more listens, I’d come to love it (your albums always get better the more you listen). But I never got round to listening again, because from that day onwards, I couldn’t go anywhere without those two songs being played.Now, it’s not your fault it became so popular. You obviously wanted some fame, you finally wanted some recognition for your brilliant music, I understand. After years of not releasing the best song on your album (Milk, Fans, Joe’s head…) and going under the radar because of it, you wanted people to stand up and say ‘Hey, those guys with the beards are pretty good’. I get it.But here’s the problem, now, you’ve built yourself up. When you hid away your good stuff, it was only people who actually liked your music who heard them. We bought the albums, listened to them a lot, and learned the LYRICS. Now, thanks to THAT song, a bunch of idiotic normals have got hold of you, and think they are fans because they can scream the YEEEEAAAAH part of Sex on Fire, or the OO OO Oh part of ‘Use Somebody’. Some people think this means you’ve ‘made it’ finally. But a bunch of bleached blonde drunk Irish People screaming to a very simple lyric at a music festival they went to because it’s an excuse to drink beer all weekend and not shower is not making it. Irish people will cheer anything (U2 for example)And this is where my worries come. You’ve shot out albums pretty quickly, and they’ve been great. But if you don’t take your time, to find your genius again, you’re going to be one of those crappy bands that get really famous and sing pop records. Look at Green Day. While they were never actually that good, they had some decent punky records that gave them a good fan base of people who liked that music. Then they went and realised American idiot. Which, again, wasn’t actually that good, but it made a point, and a point that lots of people could relate to. Had some catchy lyrics, some nice sing along sections, and the MTV crowd ate it up (thanks to some clichéd magazines telling them that this was the most important political statement ever).Then the pressure was on. How could they follow up this brilliant album? What could they do? For a while we all wondered, and then we forgot about it. Then we remembered and wondered what they were planning, and then we forgot again and got onto better things. Then they finally released it. And wow…I almost broke my jaw yawning. Rather than try something different, new and clever, going back to what made them have fans in the first place. They released American Idiot all over again, only this time with much less of a point, repeated singalong parts (while not actually doing the math, I am fairly certain Billie Joe repeats the same line at least 50 times in one song) and really terrible rifts.Don’t let this happen to you. You guys have talent. Please God take a breather, drink some moonshine, write some good songs and bring out an album next year that knocks us over again with its simple brilliance. Listen to your own music and tell me, honestly, if Sex on Fire is anywhere close to what you are capable of (if you’re confused and not sure, go and listen to the whole Aha Shake Heartbreak album, and I think the answer shall come)

Yours in Intervention

Marku